I’ve always been a big fan of role playing games. When the Pokemon commercials started airing here in North America I was left largely confused. The only thing conveyed in these television spots was the game’s focus on catching and trading. For the longest time I didn’t even know these were RPGs. It wasn’t until a friend received the game for his birthday, and we all gathered around the television watching him play. He had a Super Game Boy. I may have forgot to mention that part. The game clicked with all of us right away. I just had to have it. A few months later I was a full blown addict; battling and trading across the school yard of my school. I’ve been a huge fan of the franchise ever since. For today let’s take a closer look into the world of the original Pokemon Red and Blue.
This game’s story takes place in a land that is inhabited by creatures called Pokemon. These take the place of virtually all animals, insects, and fish. As you can imagine there are many uses for these critters. The primary focus in this game is on training and battling Pokemon. You begin as a young boy from a small burg called Pallet Town. The story unfolds as he is given a choice of Pokemon with which to begin his journey. Your goal? To become the very best Pokemon trainer in the land. You must travel to each town in the region battling trainers and challenging Gyms (think of these as bosses). Victory grants you a badge, and collecting all seven unlocks the Pokemon league where the absolute strongest trainers await. This is the standard formula for all Pokemon titles. Back then it was original and ambitious .
At first glance Pokemon Red and Blue look like traditional overhead view role playing games. You move your character’s avatar around the world which consists largely of wilderness, towns, and caves. You’re generally safe from being attacked except in two situations. Pokemon hide in the tall grass, and walking through it will trigger battles with them at random You win these by using commands selected via a menu, and then watch your actions carried out in classic turn based fashion. The twist is that, at least in these wild encounters, you can capture the enemy Pokemon by weakening them and then throwing a poke ball. If you’re successful they join your team and can now be used in battle. They can also be stored in a computer for future use if your team is full.
What’s interesting is they are added to your pokedex soon after being captured. Think of this as a catalogue of all the Pokemon in the land. It offers various details about them (each has their own description), and shows where they can be captured on the world map. This is where catching them all comes in to play. The game doesn’t seem to care if you actively own the Pokemon in question; if they’ve ever been in your possession you’ll forever have their pokedex entry. This is why Pokemon Red and Blue is perfect for the completionist type of gamers.
You can also simply defeat them which grants the pokemon you used experience points which eventually leads them to gain levels and become stronger. The other form of battle is against rival trainers that populate every area of this world. If you walk in to their line of sight they will challenge you, and you must defeat all of their Pokemon to gain experience points and money. In many cases you can simply avoid enemy trainers, but this is the quickest and easiest way to level up your pokemon so it is generally not advised.
While it may sound simple on the surface these Pokemon games are actually very deep. There are 151 different creatures to catch, and they’re all designated a specific type and in some cases sub-type. These function as elements in this game. All of them are strong against particular types while weak against others. There are fifteen of these which include basics such as normal, fire, water, grass, electricity, flying etc, with some really unique types which include ghost, dragon, fighting, psychic and more. Simply memorizing the weaknesses and strengths of all these is quite the undertaking. Dual type Pokémon complicate this matter even further.
Your creatures also learn different special skills which represent their battle commands. Each Pokémon can only know four at a time. Choosing the best ones to optimize your team will lead everyone to play differently. In addition, each of the creatures in this game are defined by a number of statistics. These include hit points, attack, special attack, defense, special defense, and speed. Most Pokemon can also evolve when they reach specific levels of experience which make them significantly stronger. In some cases this will change their typing or add a sub type to the mix. With these factors in mind the amount of choice and customization here is absolutely staggering with such a vast feature set.
The main quest in Pokemon Red and Blue is a lot of fun. Even better is the multiplayer component. Nintendo released two versions of the game specifically to encourage this. Both Red and Blue versions are the same game at heart. What’s different between them is the Pokemon you’ll encounter in the wild. Some can only be found in Red, and others in Blue. Fortunately you can link up two Game Boys together and trade any creature you’ve captured even if they’re exclusive to one color. This means that the only way to catch ’em all is by trading. There are even some pokemon simply cannot be captured at all in the wild. At a few points in the game you’re given a choice between 2-3 different creatures by NPCs. There’s no way to obtain the one(s) you didn’t pick other than by trading.
The real multiplayer highlight however is in battling. You can play against another human player, and given the staggering diversity and choices to make these encounters are usually wildly varied. This makes the game last substantially longer, and gives you more than enough reason to keep playing after completing the main story. There are few games ever released that encourage you so strongly to keep playing after the credit roll.
Unfortunately Pokemon Red and Blue are marred by a few issues. For starters the battle system is extremely slow. Enemy encounters move at a snail’s pace. I assume this is mostly due to the hardware restrictions. Movement outside of battle is also extremely slow. It isn’t until halfway through the game that you get a bicycle to speed up travel. One of the worst issues however, is the reliance on HM moves. These are used mostly on the map to bypass obstacles. There are many of them, and they take up a move slot on a pokemon. It wouldn’t be so bad, but they’re frequently required to progress. Worse yet is that you can’t forward trade any of the pokemon you catch in these games to modern Pokemon titles. With remakes released long ago for the Game Boy Advance the original versions simply aren’t worth playing anymore.
The first time I laid eyes on the original Pokemon I was stunned at how much power Nintendo was able to get out of the aged Game Boy. These games look absolutely fantastic in some places. While wandering the map the visuals are pretty simple with small deformed characters and basic scenery. It’s serviceable and even charming at times. The battle screen is what I’ve always found to be the most impressive. Though heavily pixelated all of the pokemon are feature individual designs that vary wildly. They’re drawn in such a way that you can easily tell what they’re supposed to be. The special moves feature a variety of graphical effects that are quite pleasant although some tend to repeat sprites and animations. The only drawback is that the backgrounds are simply white, but this isn’t a huge deal overall. These games still look nice.
The audio is also really good as well. The music, though composed of simple bleeps and blips, is full of personality and there are several different tracks. My absolute favorites are the various battle themes as well as route music as well. Nintendo was able to push the audio chip pretty hard for this game. Much of the music has since become iconic. What’s really interesting is the fact that every pokemon has their own battle cry. These too are simple bleeps and blips, but it’s impressive that Nintendo was able to include unique ones for each and every creature. Even the different evolutions have their own jingle. The fact that Nintendo paid such attention to detail shows that a lot of tender loving care went into this. The music and effects are full of character.
Pokemon Red and Blue are truly incredible games. Unfortunately I can’t really recommend that any new gamers partake in the old versions. This is because Nintendo wasn’t very forward thinking in allowing you to trade past the Game Boy generation. Furthermore, the vastly superior remakes are available on the GBA. This is still a landmark title and was the starting point for one of the world’s biggest video game phenomenons. Pokemon Red/Blue is easily one of my favorite video games. If you must play them go with the remakes instead otherwise all of your effort will be limited to these versions as well as Gold/Silver.
